b) initially before consonants h

2) stands for [x’] next to front vowels

IV) the letter n stands

1) for [n] in all positions, but if it is followed by [k] or [g] it indicates [ŋ] - sinan (sing)

Lecture 7

The main historical events of the Old English Period

Pre-Germanic Britain

The history of the English language begins with the invasion of the British Isles by Germanic tribes in the 5^th c. AD. Prior to the Germanic invasion the British Isles must have been inhabited for at least 50 thousand years. The earliest inhabitants were the Celts. Economically and socially the Celts were a tribal society made up of kins, kinship groups, clans and tribes; they practiced a primitive agriculture, and carried on trade with Celtic Gaul.

The first millenium B.C. was the period of Celtic migrations and expansion. Britain was invaded by several Celtic tribes, i.e. the Picts, Scots and Britons. The Picts and the Scots penetrated into the mountains on the North; some of them crossed over to Ireland and settled there. Powerful Celtic tribes, the Britons, held the most of the country, and the southern half of the island was named Britain after them.

Celtic languages were spoken over extensive parts of Europe before our era: later they were absorbed by other IE languages.

The Celtic languages are subdivided into two groups: Britonnic'>Gallo-Britonnic (гало-бретонская) and Gaelic [‘geilik] (гаэльская).

The Gallo-Britonnic branch includes:

1) the Gallic [gælik] language (галльский), the population of Gaul (nowadays Modern France)spoke it,

The Britonnic (британские) languages are represented by:

1) Welsh (Уэльский) or Kymric (Кимрийский) in modern Wales,

2) Cornish (Корнский) in Cornwall (Корнуэлл), in the south-west of England (is extinct from the XVIII c.),

and 3) Breton (Бретонский) spoken by over a million people in modern France in the area called Brittany (Бретани).

The Gaelic branch includes:

1) Irish in Ireland,

2) Scottish known as Scotch-Gaelic of the Highlands (Erse) [:s]

3) Manx (мэнкский язык) spoken by a few hundred people on the Isle of Man

In the 1^st c. B.C. Gaul was conquered by the Romans. Having occupied Gaul Julius Caesar made two raids on Britain, in 55 and 54 B.C. Caesar attacked Britain for economic reasons- to obtain tin, pearls and corn,- and also for strategic reasons. Although Caesar failed to subjugate Britain, Roman economic penetration to Britain grew: traders and colonists from Rome came in large numbers to settle in the south-eastern towns. In A.D. 43 Britain was again invaded by Roman legions under Emperor Claudius (Император Клавдий) and towards the end of the century was made a province of the Roman Empire. Scores of towns with a mixed population grew along the Roman roads. Evidently the upper classes and the townspeople were to a considerable extent Romanised, while the Romanisation of rural districts was far less thorough. The Roman occupation of Britain lasted nearly 400 years; it came to an end in the early 5^th c.(А.D.410)